260. To William Wordsworth
Pub. Memoirs of William Wordsworth, by Christopher Wordsworth, 2 Vols., 1851, i. 132.
[Circa 17 November 1798] 1
You have two things against you: your not loving smoke; and your sister. If the manners at Goslar resemble those at Ratzeburg,
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1 Since on 8 Nov. Coleridge told his wife that he had not heard from Wordsworth (Letter 259), and since he wrote to Poole on 20 Nov. (Letter 261) that Wordsworth had written from Goslar, 'where he arrived six weeks ago (6 Oct.), this letter belongs to circa 17 Nov.
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it is almost necessary to be able to bear smoke. Can Dorothy endure smoke? Here, when my friends come to see me, the candle nearly goes out, the air is so thick.